F-Secure Security Labs has a video in YouTube showing the outbreak of a Trojan with the name Small.DAM (Storm-Worm). It is a Trojan that arrives on the system as attachment file to spam emails.
The WorldMap Live shown in the video is a map view of the report sent by the F-Secure security products on detection of the Trojan. F-Secure security products such as Internet Security 2007 sends back the IP address of the infected computer. The WorldMap Live software then calculates the geographical location of the computer and fills up the world map.
In the video, you will notice most PC users schedule to scan for infections at midnight when you see the most detections.
The WorldMap Live is available for internal use only. The public viewable version is much less impressive. Want to protect your PC? Read my previous article on the trends of security threats in year 2007.
An operating system (OS) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. The definition has evolved over the years to become a platform for all kinds of computing activities. This is what Second Life, the virtual community claims to be in the future.
We all know that the claim of “New Kind of OS” is not going to be in the same form as the OS we use today. It is more about managing Internet users’ activities than controlling hardware resources. It is a platform for human interaction rather than for software collaboration. In other words, it is one level higher than what we currently see as operating system.
Second Life has been around for three and a half years. It has more than 3 million users who create avatars of themselves and move about the virtual world, chatting with others, buying land, building homes and businesses. Recently, Sweden announced to set up virtual embassy in Second Life to spread information about the Scandinavian country and attract more young visitors.
Are these enough to justify businesses to have a presence in Second Life?
Sophos, a security vendor has released a 18-page report on potential security threat coming this year. Last year was a year of rapid changing nature of threat. Sophos summarizes the trends as follow:
- Malware authors are continuing to turn their backs on large-scale attacks.
- Explosive growth of web-based downloaders to spy on users.
- Trojans outnumbering Windows viruses and worms 4:1.
- New mass-mailing worm, Stratio had over 1000 unique variants in November.
- Email containing infected attachments down to 1 in 337.
- Most spams are continuing to be relayed by poorly protected US computers.
The outlook of security threat in 2007 is largely dim with 66% of businesses thinking of a worse year. Even with the launch of Windows Vista end of the month, users are advised not to rely solely on Vista’s security improvements. Why? Windows is the targeted platform for attack and will continue to be the case in the near future.
I am sure you are familiar with terms like “wireless”, “hotspot” and “Wi-Fi”. If you know a bit technical details, you might know “802.11a”, “802.11b/g” and “channels”. Yes, you are right! 802.11n is just another amendment to the 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks (LANs) for better throughput and range.
Intel has begun shipping 802.11n compatible wireless networking module, a key component of next generation Centrino due in April with a code name Santa Rosa. Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN will consume less power according to Channel Register UK, yielding an extra hour of battery life to notebook users. The module has a data throughput of 270Mbps, half of the maximum data rate.
Surprisingly, the module is based on the draft specifications of 802.11n. The latest draft approved on 19 January this year is version 1.10. The official time line for 802.11n shows final IEEE publish date of October 2008. The final working group approval is scheduled on July 2008.
The Intelligent Enterprise Readers’ Choice Awards is an industry benchmark on how technology products are perceived and valued by users. It serves as good hints on which product to recommend to your customers.
There are 37 categories ranging from Business Intelligence Suite, ERP Software to DBMS. You won’t be surprised the most category winners are IBM and Microsoft on a tie with nine titles. The complete list is published on Intelligent Enterprise web site.
Few relatively unknown companies manage to get a title. If we concentrate only on the winners, they are WebTrends, SAS, NCR Teradata, Fair Isaac and BMC.
- WebTrends - Best Web Analytics Winner
- SAS - Best Data Mining or Statistical Analysis Winner
- NCR Teradata - Best Data Warehouse/BI Appliance Winner
- Fair Isaac - Best Business Rules Engine Winner
- BMC - Best Application Change Management Software Winner
Let’s look at each of them and get a brief idea of what they are offering.
The brand new online TV brought by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the father of Skype and Kazaa respectively has a final name. Yesterday it was The Venice Project today it is Joost. I first came about knowing Joost back in December last year when it was still a private project. Apart from the final name, the official website now has a FAQ, a mailing list and a beta program.
Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds. We’re in the process of making it as TV-like as we can, with programs, channels and adverts.
Apparently, the user needs to download an application that serves as the usual TV box. In other words, it is not web-based service like YouTube. Mac and Linux users have to wait a little longer to try out the product. Windows users can sign up for a beta test now. If you are not lucky enough to evaluate the beta, other beta testers might give you a hand by inviting you just like Gmail before.
Continue reading ‘Joost: The Venice Project Reaches Maturity’
Hitachi Global Storage Technology (HGST) launched 7K1000 in this year’s CES, making it the world first 1TB Hard Drive to hit the market. The price is $399 and will be available in this quarter. The HDD is not targeted for the desktop PC market but high-end gaming PC market, which normally means the price will not drop too soon.
The technical specifications of 7K1000:
- 1000GB/750GB - SATA
- 9.0 (5 disk)/8.1 (4 disk) watt idle power - SATA
- 32 MB data buffer - SATA
- 5/4 platters, 10/8 recording heads - SATA
- Serial-ATA 3.0Gb/s and PATA-133 interfaces
- 7200 RPM, 4.17 ms average latency
- 1070 Mb/s maximum data rate
- 8.7 ms average seek time (with command overhead)
- 300 G/1 ms pulse non-operating shock - ramp load design for increased shock protection
- 2.9 Bels typical idle acoustics - “bedroom quiet”
- 5-60 degrees Celsius operating temperature
- 148 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
- 26.1 mm in height (max)
- 700g in weight (max)
Continue reading ‘1TB (Terabyte) Hard Drive is Finally Here’
Long gone the history of having microprocessor, memory or graphics card as the bottlenecks of PC performance. It is now the hard drive, the only mechanical device left inside a PC. The traditional way of improving a hard drive includes making the disks rotate faster, increasing storage density per platter as well as putting a much large buffer for cache miss.
As software gets larger in size such improvements are marginal at best. The room for improvements is bounded by the physical characteristic of mechanical drive. Hard drive makers have to look beyond mechanical and jump to electronics drive.
With the proliferation of USB thumb drive, the NAND flash memory drops price quick enough to make it worthwhile to build a flash hard drives (essentially a bigger thumb drives in tens of gigabytes). SanDisk is going to unveil a 32 GB, 1.8-inch solid-state drive (SSD) as an alternative to the magnetic hard disk on next week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
AutoNet Mobile, a startup company wants to change the driving experience forever. The AutoNet Mobile In-Car-Router turns any moving vehicle into a Wi-Fi hotspot powered by the car’s cigarette lighter. It allows any portables that are Wi-Fi enabled to surf the net on the road.
The service covers 95% of America making it equally competitive to mobile service providers. The service is optimized for the in-car experience regardless of driving conditions or location.
How does the device connect to the Internet? The answer is TRU technology. There is no detail on what exactly it is. Without the technology, the in-car Internet connection would interrupt too frequently creating an unpleasant net surfing experience.
The new startup offers not much innovation except TRU technology, which is perhaps why they choose to keep quiet. It competes directly with mobile service providers and WiMAX although not necessary favorably.
The service begins shipping in spring 07 and is available for pre-order. The unit retails for $US399 with a monthly service charge of $US49 according to iTWire. The company is unveiling Autonet mobile in Las Vegas on January 8 at CES International 2007.
The race for micro fuel cells that power devices is heating up. Several companies are anxiously working on developing and marketing micro fuel cells for portable devices. The most recent announcement by Samsung after Christmas allows you to run a laptop for a whole month, assuming it runs for eight hours a day.
The following is a list of fuel cell research published in the past 5 years.
- Wired News, 2002: A startup from Munich, SFC, has developed a micro fuel cell that runs on methanol or Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC).
- BBC News, 2003: NEC has unveiled a laptop computer that has a built-in fuel cell powered by 300 cubic centimeters of methanol, uses a catalyst to break this down into oxygen and hydrogen and generates heat and power as by-products.